Month: May 2017

Goals are the results, outcome, and achievement from a person, organization, a team and even a country. As a person, goals gives us the direction to move forward to reach life fulfillment. Goals are the oxygen of achievement. Goals reinforce your why! Goals unlocked your potential! Goals strengthen your clarity, focus, and concentration. Goals track your progress. Goals drive your inspiration and motivation!

Here are the top three quotes on goals!!

IF YOU’RE NOT WORKING ON YOUR GOAL, YOU’RE WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE’S GOAL

SETTING GOAL IS THE FIRST STEPS IN TURNING THE INVISIBLE TO THE VISIBLE

LIFE TAKES ON MEANING WHEN YOU BECOME MOTIVATED, SET GOALS AND CHARGE AFTER THEM IN AN UNSTOPPABLE MANNER

Further reading;

YOU NEED TO HAVE SELF-AWARENESS

Self Awareness is about knowing yourself. It means having a clear view of your personality. This may include your strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, inspiration and emotions. Most importantly, you need to be brutally honest with yourself and acknowledge it! You need to admit your strength and also admit your weakness. In other words, it is a battle between who you think you are or who you actually are? Honestly is key! Be ready to face the painful truth, rather than a beautiful lie. What’s work for others may now work for you! Find out your DNA!The next steps are to choose which one you need to focus on! The best option is to go all in on your strength and put the effort in it until it became your bread and butter! If you desire to work on your weakness, it is best you get help to speed up the process to be good at it!

The next steps are to choose which one you need to focus on! The best option is to go all in on your strength and put the effort in it until it became your bread and butter! If you desire to work on your weakness, it is best you get help to speed up the process to be good at it!

Once you know who you are with great depth and breath, self-awareness allows you to understand other people and the ways they perceive you. You understand their attitude toward you. With that in place, you are able to respond instead or reaction which allows you to make a great decision!

“I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.” – Billie Jean King

EXECUTION!

Once you know who you are, you need to execute! You need put in the work and effort to sharpen your skill! Start by setting a crystal clear goal! If you strongly believe you will be a great engineer, start working on it. If you strongly believe you will be a successful fitness coach, start working on it! If you strongly believe you great in making a video, start working on it! If you strongly believe you are good in writing a blog, start working on it! The bottoms like is the effort of execution! Ideas are great, however, it counts once it is being executed.

“All your ideas may be solid or even good. But you have to Actually EXECUTE on them for them to matter.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

With execution, you are able to audit yourself whether you are good at it! It goes back to self-awareness to know whether it is really your strength or weakness. If it is a strength, great! Keep working on it! If it is a weakness, adjust! Find ways to work on it or you discover your other strength! Again, to know whether you are good at it. You have to execute!

ACCOUNTABILITY!!

Accountability is a strong sense of responsibility and obligation a person hold. You have to be ultimately answerable to every action you take, no matter whether you are right and wrong. Similar to self-awareness, you have to be brutally honest and uphold the value of integrity! Once you know your strength and belief, you are accountable to sharpen the skills and continue to sustain it! If you encounter setbacks and failure, you have to acknowledge it. Adjust and work on your recovery plan to get back on track. Again, your self-awareness attribute comes into play again. Adjust and execute!

“Accountability breeds response-ability.” –Stephen Covey

These are the key S.E.A formula of being successful! Self-awarenessis to know where you are on your journey! It allows you to accept your weaknesses while focusing all of your attention on your strengths. Then, you got to execute to determine whether that is your weakness or your strength! Finally, you need to take accountability whether you are right and especially when you are wrong!

The BURPEE is the bread and butter for every Spartan Racer! Every time Spartans failed an obstacle, they are required to do 30 burpees! If not, they are disqualified from the race! So, if you want to join the Spartan Race, you need to be burpee proof!

Spartan Tip: Commit to do a minimum of 30 burpees per day!

Burpee is a full body workout! It will burn fat, build endurance and works your entire body so hard that exhausted athletes have been known to stop mid-burpee workout and, be huffing and puffing, use what little breath they can muster to curse profusely. Like pushups and jumping jacks, the humble bodyweight exercise can be done virtually anywhere, at any interval, with absolutely no equipment necessary except a functioning cardiovascular system and a strong stomach.

Burpee was created by a physiologist by the name Royal Huddleston Burpee. Yes, Burpee was his last name. In his 1940 book, “Seven Quickly Administered Tests of Physical Activity,” Burpee wrote about a four-count move that could check the state of a person’s everyday fitness. The original exercise:

Squat with both hands on the floor in front of you.

Kick your feet back behind you, so you’re in plank position.

Jump your feet forward again.

Return to standing position.

The Original Burpee

After some period of time, the burpee evolved into a six-count torture device with two key additions: dropping to a pushup after the plank and finishing with a forceful jump up into the air, arms straight above your head. These two steps increase the difficulty of the workout! It will burn your legs more!

The Spartan Burpee are the following;

Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground.

Kick your feet back and assume the front plank position.

Lower your chest to the ground and back up to complete push up.

Return to the squat position in one quick motion.

Jump vertically as high as possible.

Back to step 1 until 30 Burpees!!

Let us look at different perspective. What if I say there is no failure there are only burpees. It means if you encounter an obstacle, you choose either one! If you failed the obstacles, just drop and do the burpee!

However, there are also mandatory obstacles for Spartan Race. It means you MUST do it! Generally, the obstacles involved carries or crawls. If you fail any of these obstacles you need to restart the obstacle If you are not able to complete the obstacle, you must turn in your timing chip to a course marshal or official. Basically, you are disqualified from the race!

The Mandatory Obstacles are the following;

Bucket Brigade

Mud Crawl

Sandbag Carry

Log Carry

Swim

Spider Web

Farmers Carry

Jump Rope

Jerry Can Carry

Push Ups

Box Jumps

Spartan Tip: Take your time to complete it! If you`re in the Open category. Do not be afraid to seek help. If you are in the Elite category, you better train for it! You are an Elite Spartan for a reason right?

The Spartan Racepost up a challenge! The 31-Burpee Challenge. I took up the challenge! I need at least 31 burpees a day for 31 days. I need to take a picture or short video and post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the hashtag #31BurpeeChallenge. I post all my video on my Instagram account.

So Why 31? As anyone who’s run a Spartan race knows, if you can’t complete an obstacle, you get sent to the penalty box and must complete 30 burpees before moving on. Doing extra 1 burpee is better! So, 31 Burpees! Check out my burpee video below!

Come and join The Reebok Spartan Race to embrace the adversity of life. A life without adversity is a life without growth. A life without growth is a life without meaning.

Now, get a piece of paper and start writing down the following steps. Write in term of bullet points. If you want, just copy and paste this into Microsoft Word document and write it down! Your first draft steps will not be perfect. Just start and record it down. Then, later look at it again and adjust to fit your lifestyle. Alright, here are the 7 easy steps to set your goals!

1. IDENTIFY YOUR GOAL

Decide exactly what you want! Most people never do this and fail. Why? They think they already have a goal. But what they have are not goals. They are only wishes, hope, and dreams. A real goal is crystal clear and very specific. For example, you want to lose weight! How much weight do you plan to lose? Do I want 6 packs? What is the waist line you are targeting? Again be very very clear!

Sample: To lose weight from 100kg to 80kg. Decrease waistline from 40inch to 34inch.

2. THE BENEFITS OF ACHIEVING THE GOAL

Imagine you are there grabbing your goal in your hand. What are the benefits you will gain? I am going to be happy. I am going to be healthier. I can spend time with my family. I will have more money. These are the rewards once you achieve your goal. It acts as an anchor for you to work on your goal every day! Lets put it this way when you are struggling climbing a mountain, you just need to imagine the view at the top! That is the benefits once you achieve your goal! The most important thing is that your goal will make you fulfill and happy.

Sample: To be healthier. More energy. To look great and build confident of self-image. To live longer so that I can spend time with my children.

3. OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL

Before you want to enjoy the view at the top of the mountain, you got to climb it. The mountains are the obstacles that you need to overcome to achieve your goal! Begin with questions. What are the obstacles that I need to overcome? What are the showstoppers? You need to list down all the obstacles that preventing your to achieve that goal!

4. SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE NEEDED TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL

Skills and knowledge are required for you need to reach your goal. These are the tools you need to beat your obstacles that you list out in the previous step. Always start with questions. What do I need to do to beat this obstacle? How can I be better so that the obstacles can be knock down? Who I need to seek help from? One question will lead to another. For every answer, write it down. Don`t worry about whether it is correct or not. It is just your first draft. You can even google it! Just search “How to avoid sweet junk food?”

5. INDIVIDUAL, GROUPS, AND COMPANIES TO WORK WITH TO REACH THE GOAL!

Certain skills and knowledge you may not have to achieve your goal. Therefore, you need to get help. They can be your friends who are an already an expert in the field. They could be the people who you are inspired to reached. Lets us look case by case. You are struggling to get a healthy meal. You can google to find out whether there is food outlet that can prepare a healthy meal for you or find out the recipe. Let’s just say you are to climb up a ladder in the corporate world. It is a good strategy to have a mentor in the company to advise you on how to progress in the career world. Another key person that can help you is an accountability buddy. They are the one who will help to keep track on your progress. They need to be brutally honest and genuinely want to make sure you achieve your goal.

6. PLAN OF ACTION AND EXECUTE!

“Innovation is rewarded. Execution is worshiped.” Dr. Eric Thomas

Make a list! Write down everything you can think of that you could do to achieve a goal. It has to be in a form of action statement. The very act of making a list of everything you can think of achieving your goal increases your belief that the goal is attainable. The organized your list into a plan. Arrange your list in sequences. Create a checklist, a list of all the steps that you will have to take to achieve your goal. Be sure your list is practical and it can be done within 24 hours.

Take action on your plan and learn to adjust accordingly, You need to make effort to execute the plan. That is when your plan counts! It is only counted when it was executed.

Samples: I will commit to reducing food portion in every meal especially high carb food. I will not eat white bread, sweets, and junk food! I will workout in the gym 5 days in a week. I will eat more fruits and drink more water in a day. I order food from healthy food outlet since I do not have time to cook. I will hire a fitness trainer to coach me. I will commit to sleep 7 to 8 hours a day. I will run a marathon. I will join the SPARTAN RACE.

7. SET A DEADLINE AND KEEP TRACK!

A deadline acts as a forcing system for your subconscious mind. This allows you to set a target. From the time you write down your goal and set a deadline, you will be motivated to work, adjust and take the necessary step to achieve it. Keep track on your goal. You can check your progress in term of weekly, monthly or even quarterly.

What happens if you don`t achieve your goal by the deadline? Then, you need to set another deadline. Remember, there is no unrealistic goals, merely unrealistic deadline. If you change your deadline more than 3 times. You may need to check your plan of action again. Your deadline may be unrealistic or you are not doing the work. Be honest with yourself.

Samples: (Assuming you start 1 January 2017) Weight from 100kg to 80kg by 31 December 2017. Each month, I need to lose 1.7kg of weight. If I did not achieve the monthly deadline. I need to adjust my workout program and my diet.

Every morning you wake up in the morning, read the steps! Every night before you sleep, read the steps again. Ask yourself this question;

What did I do today to achieve my goal?

How can I improve for tomorrow?

Why do I do this?

Finally, express gratitude. “I did well today”

It is all about effort!!

Samples!

1. IDENTIFY YOUR GOAL

To lose weight from 100kg to 80kg. Decrease waistline from 40inch to 34inch. To get 6 packs abs.

2. THE BENEFITS OF ACHIEVING THE GOAL

To be healthier. More energy. To look great and build confident of self-image. To live longer so that I can spend time with my children.

5. INDIVIDUAL, GROUPS, AND COMPANIES TO WORK WITH TO REACH THE GOAL!

6. PLAN OF ACTION AND EXECUTE!

I will commit to reducing food portion in every meal, especially high carb food. I will not eat white bread, sweets, and junk food! I will workout in the gym 5 days in a week. I will eat more fruits and drink more water in a day. I order food from healthy food outlet since I do not have time to cook. I will hire a fitness trainer to coach me. I will commit to sleep 7 to 8 hours a day. I will run a marathon. I will join the SPARTAN RACE

7. SET A DEADLINE AND KEEP TRACK!

(Assuming you start 1 January 2017) Weight from 100kg to 80kg by 31 December 2017. Each month, I need to lose 1.7kg of weight. If I did not achieve the monthly deadline. I need to adjust my workout program and my diet.

“A goal can be achieved if you break it down into enough small parts.” Henry Ford

My late Father, Marcus was a leader, mentor and a loving husband to my mother. One day, he just fetched me from school, and I was only 16 years old. I was selected to be a school prefect. He shared his thought on leadership to me. He said there are 5V`s attributes of leadership!

VISIBLE

A leader is required to be visible. In other words, being the presence with his or her followers. Imagine, a corporate meeting with and without CEO. There is always a difference between these two cases. If a leader is presences in a meeting, the team will take things seriously compared without the presence of a leader. A great analogy of leadership can be seen close to our home. They are our mother and father. Let say you`re playing a basketball game. Imagine, with and without the presence of your parents. It will be a different feeling. With your presence of your father or mother or even better both!! You feel pumped! You feel powerful, and you want to give all your might to play to win. It is not for you, but it is for your parents. To make them feel proud! With their presence, you will not feel that pumped. Believe me!!

VOCAL

A leader needs to be vocal to inspire and motivate his or her followers. It is a means of communication to convey a message or direction. They also must show empathy and care to listen and talk to their team. Especially when all odds goes against them. Imagine, in a corporate meeting. A leader who remind silent when he or she needs to make a decision. There will be no direction for the team. Hence, no progress and it will be a dead team. Let us look at our parents in the basketball game. They shouted your name to cheer for you! Again, you feel pumped. There is a sudden shot of energy burst in you that you did not have. You ran faster, jumped higher and score better. All this is coming from your beloved parent that cheer for you!

VALUE

Values are the executives level of decision maker of a leader. Leaders must have essential value to make the decision to inspire a team to greatness. Values that leaders shows will set a culture of a team. My father told me that the number one value that a leader should have is courage. A leader needs to be courageous to take the risk. A leader needs to be courageous to admit mistakes. A leader needs to be courageous to be humble. A leader needs to be courageous to put their followers first than themselves.

VIRTUE

Virtue means setting a higher standard. There is a saying, “Leading by example.” The follower may listen to their leader, but they will observe their leader`s action. If what the leaders say is not in alignment with their action. They will lose trust in their leaders. For example, your leader said you must come early to work at 8:00 am in the morning. You arrived at 7:50 am, but your leader came at 8:30 am. What is the level of integrity you see in your leader in this case? What if you see your leader arrived at 6:30 am in the morning? How will you perceive him as a leader? Very much a leader with virtue. Leadership with high virtue need to perform ahead of their follower. That is what leadership is about being ahead of their follows and bring them together.

VOCATION

Vocation is defined as the undying commitment to serve. It is an obligation whereby you cannot resign. Being a leader needs to portray this attribute. They need to help their followers, and this will inspire the follower to commit to their leader. That is why there is a big difference between authority and leadership. Authority is a position and people are assigned to follow you! Leadership is a behavior and people are inspired to follow you! A good analogy is our ideal parents. They will always be your father and mother although you are an adult with the age of 40. There are always there to serve and help you.

“We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us.” Simon Sinek

Leaders need to be visible to shows presence to the people. Leaders need to be vocal to inspire the people. Leaders need to lead by value to make the key decision. Leaders need to portray virtue which set a higher standard. Being a leader is a vocation to show the undying commitment to serve his people.

I dedicate this blog post in the remembrance of my late father who returns to the Lord in heaven at 3:30 am on 28 May 2015 at the age of 55. We deeply miss him.

Who is Marvin?

I am a husband, engineer, Spartan Racer, powerlifter and a blogger. The purpose of MarvinInspire is to inspire people to embrace the life obstacles. I believe the secret of winning outside, is to first to win inside. It is all about building a positive mindset to overcome the obstacles. Let's inspire people to embrace the obstacles to achieve greatness in life.